Little more than a rip off of STAR WARS, but this still has some reasons to watch. Firstly, take a look at the year it was made...yep, that's the cue for some '70s disco music to play in an alien casino scene (don't ask), plus the futuristic fashions (robes and helmets which look like something out of Egypt) date this film horribly.While the plot set up is initially interesting, unfortunately this television movie, which served as a pilot for the series, is far too long and a lot of scenes drag out endlessly. Added on to the main story are pointless sub plots about one of the hero's romances with a female survivor. I could have done without these scenes, more action would have been nicer. Only about two major events happen in the film so there's a lot of rubbish to sit through before you get to the good bits.The acting is okay. I'm being kind here. Nobody is exactly awful and thankfully everybody keeps a straight face (difficult in some places), but no single person sticks in the mind for putting in a good performance. In fact, although I saw the film only a few hours ago, I can hardly remember any of the faces or names. You'll also notice that there are hardly any females in the cast, those that are there have extremely small roles too.Down in the cast list there are a few familiar faces, such as the awful Jane Seymour, seasoned veteran Ray Milland as a baldy councillor, and Wilfred Hyde-White who plays his patented crusty superior yet again. That guy got everywhere.Anyway as I was saying the STAR WARS influence is huge on this film, without STAR WARS it never would have existed. There are a lot of space battles with ships firing lasers, taken directly from Lucas' classic, but these are overlong and the special effects are pretty poor. Also, why were there explosions when the lasers missed? What were they hitting? Space debris? I don't think so.The robot cyborgs are supposed to be scary but I found the sight of guys lumbering around covered in tin trays pretty funny. Firstly, their faces look like cheap copies of Darth Vader, and secondly, they speak exactly like the Transformers did back in the cartoon series of the '80s. There are a couple of fun aliens too, including some glamorous alien singers who have two heads merged into one with four eyes and some cheap aliens who look like rejects from CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, complete with tacky lightbulb eyes.Unfortunately, some guy also had the bright idea of adding a kid with a robot dog into the film, I wish I knew who he was so I could shoot him. Tacky, childish and stupid, yes, but definitely not good and not clever. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA isn't TOO bad and manages to stand on two feet, and as a pilot it sets up all the major plot/characters etc. well. I'm sure the budget was low too, which makes it look even more impressive, but in the end let's just face it, nowadays we watch this to have a laugh. I much preferred BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY.

This is such a poor Star Wars Light ripoff developed by a couple of cult religion Mormon morons. The whole show smacks of Mormon propaganda and religious overtones. The Mormon beliefs are almost impossible to take and that takes a lot away from the show. Special effects oddly hold up because they are fairly inert, but the stories are either boring or indirectly have something to do with Mormonism. Bonanza actor is woefully out of his element as the captain/commander of galactica. This show demonstrates what a bad actor he is. BTW, they even ripped off the sound effects from Star Wars. How low can these cult Mormon dips sink?

"There are those who believe, that life here began out there." These words marked the start of a new sci-fi show that featured robots, ships, bigger ships, planets, space and more robots. Yes, I remember when I got my first taste of Battlestar Galactica for the first time back in 1986 when it showed on BBC2 at 6pm. Aged only four, I knew this program would be in my life forever. My sister used to watch it just for Richard Hatch and still does! The Twelve colonies of Man have been fighting the Cylons for over a millenia. Finally having a choice for peace, the Humans take it, not knowing what lies around the corner. Only Adama's two sons, Zak and Apollo know of the empending doom from a routine recon patrol. Racing to get back to the Galactica, one of them gets blown to bits when a Cylon attack force races towards the fleet of Battlestars. If you've seen the series and the feature-lentgh movie, you know of the quality of the effects were, at that time, groundbreaking. Now, they're just pants. The actings good along with the plot. Its just those effects. That niggle aside, I still love watching both the series and the movie. Oh, don't bother watching the new one. It don't match up to the original. I mean...Starbucks..a..Woman!!

This movie, universe, series, further capitalized on the Star Wars phenomina, along with other well known movies "Battle Beyond the Stars", and "Black Hole". I very, very, vaguely remember this movie when it came out. So I'm not going to make any real comments on it.BUT I do remember the culture of the times when this movie came out. And about that I can very seriously comment. Every kid had the Battle Star Galactica fighter ship models and toys. I remember they shot little missiles out of the gun turrets. I remember how the Cylon fighter's wings streched out from the ship with a click of a switch. I also remember how around age 8 I made my own Battlestar Galactica fighter ship model using 3 used toilet paper tubes and paper meche. It came out very nice too! I had a Starbuck action figure. All this just shows how popular this movie was with kids, and even though it didn't set box office records - it did make a lasting mark.Where I lived every kid had the Battlestar Galacitica craze right before the Star Wars craze hit full force and 100x's stronger.